Theft Case Surprises Commissioners

Few Saw Water-sewer Trouble Brewing

LEESBURG — When the city's former water and sewer supervisor pleaded guilty on Feb. 28 to using city workers to do personal projects, it came as a surprise to most city commissioners.

Commissioner Ed Schlein, for example, said he knew nothing about Charles E. Bowman's misdeeds until he learned about the guilty plea from a reporter.

He said Thursday that commissioners should have been warned that ''a bomb was going to fall.''

However, one commissioner who wasn't dumbfounded by Bowman's guilty plea to 11 incidents of theft against the city was Bill Polk.

Polk said recently that he learned of unspecified allegations about Bowman in November from a city employee. He said he notified then-City Manager Rex Taylor about the allegations, but Taylor did nothing.

''He was aware of the problems back in November. He refused to take any action on it,'' Polk told The Lake Sentinel. ''I would have to say that Mr. Taylor handled it wrong.''

Taylor, who left his Leesburg post after 15 years in January for a higher-paying job in Vero Beach, did not return numerous telephone calls requesting an interview about the matter.

Polk first made public his prior knowledge of allegations about Bowman during a March 11 commission meeting.

At the same meeting, Interim City Manager Jim Williams said Taylor and other top city officials were not told ''by any city employees or anybody else that these kind of activities were going on.''

City Attorney Fred Morrison said at the meeting that city officials learned of an investigation into Bowman only two to three weeks before his guilty plea.

However, Polk contradicted Morrison, telling his fellow commissioners that he and Taylor were aware in November that employees were going to the State Attorney's office to seek an investigation of Bowman.

City Commissioner Bob Lovell said he is outraged that Polk knew about problems in the water and sewer department and didn't press for an investigation himself.

''He sat on this information,'' Lovell told The Lake Sentinel. ''I have big problems with that. If the employee had come to me and said that, I probably would have . . . gone to the police chief first, and then the city manager.''

If nothing had been done by either of those officials, ''I probably would have brought it up in an open meeting to save the city embarrassment,'' Lovell said.

Lovell said he believes Williams' and Morrison's version of what unfolded.

Polk said this week that he had no regrets about how he reacted to the information given to him by the employee. Handling employees is the city manager's job, he said.

''I thought that was bad judgment (on Taylor's part), but that wasn't my call,'' Polk said. ''I did all that I felt I was responsible to do at that time.''

Bowman admitted to using city workers for personal projects over a three-year period, including moving a hot tub, building him a boat dock in Citrus County and putting up a pole barn at his new house in Sumter County.

Bowman, 61, had retired Jan. 1, citing ''stress'' and health problems as reasons for leaving his $56,000-a-year job after 26 years with the city.

County Judge Richard Boylston withheld a judgment of guilt on the condition that Bowman plead guilty to 11 misdemeanor counts of petty theft and repay the city $1,044.83 for the labor he used.

In addition, Bowman was sentenced to nine months of probation and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.

Since the Bowman story broke, city commissioners have instituted a policy informing employees they can't use property, workers and equipment for personal projects.

Commissioners also plan to require regular evaluations on department heads. Evaluating supervisors has been a low priority for years.

If Bowman had received routine reviews, Taylor might have been able to keep better tabs on him, Schlein said.

''It was clearly a kingdom, a fiefdom. He was in charge, and nobody knew what he was doing,'' Schlein said.

Polk said he wants to make sure what Bowman did doesn't happen again.

''I would like to have a more aggressive city manager, when we get a new one, who would head off situations like this,'' he said.